Pets provide their owners with many benefits. They are therapists, feet warmers, cuddlers, and companions. One caring doctor understood this and made sure his patient left with a prescription for a cat.
Dr. Earl King treats the whole patient, mind, body, and spirit. He could tell something was wrong with his patient, Robin Sipe, the minute she walked into the exam room. She was visibly upset and it wasn’t due to her COPD.
Robin sees Dr. King four times a year. This time it was different. “I was crying. He asked me what was wrong,” she recalled. “I explained to him that I lost my pet, and I was very sad. He told me at that time, 'Robin, I’ve never seen you like this.'”
Dr. King is a very special doctor to Robin. She credits him with saving her life three times with intubation and ICU care.
At her quarterly visits Dr. King and Robin talk about her health and prescriptions. This time he suggested she get the flu shot, a COVID booster, and he put something else special in the instructions. When Robin saw her prescription for a new cat, she smiled.
“This is the first time I wrote down a prescription for a cat. There have been times before where I’ve recommended a companion or service dog,” Dr. King explained. “I never wrote it all down. But this time I felt it was important to specify for Robin that she get a cat.”
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Robin took Dr. King’s instructions seriously. On her way home, she stopped at a farm stand that just so happened to have kittens. She adopted a cat with a missing paw and named her Earlene King, after the doctor who prescribed her.
Robin is so thankful for Dr. King. “He was very concerned about my overall wellbeing,” she stated. “I had a broken heart because my cat died and he was concerned about my heart and my lungs and my mental (health). He wanted me to be happy.”
She added that Earlene is “a blessing — a pure blessing from God.”
